Israel Matzav

Homeland Security walking back Jewish claim on Giffords

You will recall that I posted yesterday that the attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords' life was because she is Jewish. That post was based on a memo from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted by Fox News' Greta van Sustern on her blog. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is walking back that memo.

Fox News's report yesterday initially claimed that a DHS memo had outlined the possible connection, and defined American Renaissance as a "pro-white racist organization" that Jared Loughner "mentioned in some of his internet postings." Fox later walked back the report a bit, sourcing the claim to "a law enforcement memo based on information provided by DHS."

The Fox report caused a splash, with some news orgs reporting that anonymous officials had confirmed such possible ties. Some conservatives railed at DHS for supposedly trying to tie the shooter to the right for political reasons, and others disputed the suggestion that this displayed the shooter's ideological leanings.

But DHS has not officially provided any such information to any law enforcement officials, the DHS official says.

"We have not established any such possible link," the official says.

The official cautions it's conceivable that a law enforcement official got unofficial info from a DHS official somewhere along the lines of what Fox reported. But he emphasizes that DHS has not even concluded in any official way that even the possibility of such ties exists. The official adds that it wouldn't be DHS's place to reach any such conclusion in the first place, since the FBI is leading the investigation.

Spokespeople for Fox didn't immediately return an email for comment. For now, however, it looks like this could further complicate efforts to pin down the shooter's beliefs.

Let's go to the videotape.



Yes, that was Gilda Radner as Roseann Rosannadanna.

Labels: Gabrielle Giffords, Gilda Radner, Greta van Sustern, Jewish

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:56 AM